Night Flights
by Tajjas
Summary: Prophet's thoughts on the relationships between his teammates, set some undetermined amount of time after Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior ended.


_Quick one shot, Prophet observes the relationships between his teammates, set some undetermined amount of time after Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior ended (since my mind is apparently on a Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior kick)._

* * *

Something struck him in the temple, and Prophet sat up with a start. And then realized as the plane dipped again that he hadn't been hit at all, he'd just slumped over in his seat far enough that a bit of turbulence had knocked his head against the window beside him. He rolled his shoulders, wincing as a muscle in his neck protested, and sighed and reached up to rub the ache out. He much preferred the FBI jet to flying commercial, but the seats still weren't the most comfortable places to nap.

When he looked out the window, he could make out a hint of false dawn, but inside the plane the lights were dimmed and the compartment silent except for the hum of the engines. Mick had fallen asleep with his head pillowed on his arms just across the table from Prophet, his last hand of cards still held loosely in his fingers, and Prophet smiled and reached out to turn the cards slightly so he could see them in the low light. Full house, kings over nines. Not bad. Mick was going to be annoyed that they'd fallen asleep before it was played out, especially since the hand lying on the table in front of Prophet held a pair of sevens and not much else. With a grin, Prophet stole a couple of green skittles out of the pot. Mick had already eaten all of the purples, after all; he was entitled.

Gina had taken the couch just across the aisle from them, her long legs tucked up under a thin blanket, and even in sleep Prophet could make out a hint of tension in her face. She'd been quieter than usual for the past couple days, but he suspected that it had more to do with the tail end of the conversation he'd caught the morning they'd boarded the plane than with the case they'd picked up. Apparently her relationship with Eric Whatever-the-hell-his-last-name-was was well and truly over, and while they'd only officially been dating for a month or two…. Prophet shook his head and made a mental note to take her out after work sometime soon. She could probably use a friend and a shoulder to lean on right about now.

He glanced back at the figure asleep across the table from him. He'd take her out himself, or he'd play the big brother card and give Mick the smack upside the head he'd been asking for ever since Gina and Eric had started dating in the first place and make _him_ take her out. Mick had been too professional to show his displeasure with their relationship at work, but he and Prophet spent enough time together outside of the office that Prophet could practically give a dissertation on Eric Whatever's faults as noted by Mick. And not that Prophet hadn't agreed—admittedly he was a little biased where family was concerned, but even allowing for that, there was no way that the guy had been good enough for her—but he'd still spent a whole lot less time complaining about it than Mick had.

He shook his head and stole a few more skittles. It wasn't a card he played often since despite the fact that Mick was a decade and some younger than he was, no one who'd seen and done the things that Mick had could be called 'young' and Prophet wouldn't disrespect him by ignoring that, but Mick and Gina had been dancing around each other for a while now. Between Gina's mutters of discontent the last time Mick had been seeing a girl semi-steadily and this whole mess with Eric, it was high time that they acknowledged it. Hopefully sending them out alone for dinner would tip something.

Prophet snorted quietly. If it didn't, he might finally give in to the temptation to lock them in a room together for a few hours and hope that _that_ did some good. Hell, if Mick wasn't the best they had with lock picks, he might already have tried it after Mick and Sherry had gone their separate ways, and never mind the fact that they were more likely to spend those hours plotting revenge against him than seriously talking to each other.

Officially, of course, relationships between teammates were frowned upon within the FBI. And there were good reasons for that, no doubt about it, but considering how long Mick and Gina had been eyeing each other, Prophet doubted that them going out would be any more of an issue than them _not_ going out currently was. Particularly given that they were both professionals and perfectly capable of comporting themselves as such. Fortunately, given that their team operated independently most of the time anyway, the odds were that they'd be able to avoid interference from outside their little group, and since aside from the fact that Coop didn't have a lot of use for bureaucratic stupidity….

Prophet twisted, glancing over the back of his seat, and wasn't surprised to find Beth and Coop asleep as well. The armrests between their seats had been pushed up out of the way and Beth was tucked against Coop's side, his arm wrapped around her. Prophet smiled and turned back around. He was pretty sure they'd still been arguing some obscure point of theology when he'd fallen asleep—for all that he'd never made a secret of his own beliefs, he'd never been able to follow along when they really got going, and never mind that Coop had never finished seminary and the one time he'd asked Beth directly about her beliefs her response had been 'Raised Jewish, but it didn't take' with no further elaboration as to whether it was Judaism in particular, religion in general, or some combination of the two that she had issues with—but obviously they'd come to a conclusion that satisfied them both. Or, more likely, they'd just postponed further argument until later. Personally Prophet didn't think he'd enjoy having the full force of _either_ of their tempers turned on him, but they seemed to relish their debates, and while if their relationship was more than platonic they'd been pretty damn discrete about it, it wasn't quite the first time he'd seen them in a position that would meet with disapproval from most of the rest of the FBI.

He leaned his seat back a little further and pulled his jacket out of the bag on the seat beside him, rolling it quickly to form a makeshift pillow, and the zipper of his jacket knocked against the plane with a clack that seemed louder than it should have been in the silence.

Mick stirred slightly. "Mm?"

"Just me," Prophet said quietly. "Go back to sleep."

Mick murmured something else and then subsided, and Prophet smiled and rested his head against his jacket. A few more hours of sleep, that was all he wanted. When they got back home he'd try and sort out the best approach for the whole Mick-Gina situation. Hell, maybe Coop and Beth would help. He was pretty sure that Coop hadn't liked Eric either, and he knew that Beth had heard more about Sherry from Gina than she'd ever wanted to as well.


End file.
